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East Texas Murder Suspects Appear before Judge

GILMER — Two of the three suspects accused of killing a Longview man in early December appeared before an Upshur County judge Friday morning. Sarah Haslam, 20, and Daniel Jones, 19, are charged with killing Ronnie Joe Gammage, 27, of Longview, (pictured) who disappeared on December 4. KETK reports the two suspects appeared before Judge Lauren Parish in the 115th District Court. The third alleged murderer, Andrew Conrad Norwine, 21, will be transferred to Upshur County in about 10 days.

A missing person report was filed on December 8, the same day Gammage’s truck was found in a Waffle House parking lot with slashed tires. After the pickup was found, Longview police released surveillance video of a group of people trying to cash a check from Gammage’s account. Tips from the public helped identify two of the people in the car as Haslam and Jones. On Wednesday, December 19, Jones and Haslam led authorities to Gammage’s body in Upshur County.

The Longview News-Journal reports Norwine, a U.S. Army private assigned to Fort Polk in Leesville, La., signed a waiver of extradition from the Vernon Parish Jail on Thursday allowing his transfer to Gilmer. Norwine’s bond was set at $1 million on a capital murder charge. Haslam and Jones were each held on $1.3 million bond. They are charged with capital murder and aggravated kidnapping. Haslam and Jones were transferred from the Gregg County Jail to the Upshur County Jail Thursday.

According to probable cause affidavits for the arrest of Haslam and Jones, Gammage, who was mentally disabled, was lured by the trio into a vehicle Dec. 5 and driven to a construction site in Gregg County, where he was beaten. After the attack, Gammage was loaded into a vehicle and driven to rural Upshur County where he was killed and his body burned, according to police records. Prosecutors will seek the death penalty.